Of course, people do things in different ways....

I will browse the styles in BB to see if I find anything I like. One of the problems with that is there are so many good styles that I like.

From this list, sounds like an interesting style:
Quote:
Jimmy Buffet, reggae, Hawaiian, & Southern. I already know what instruments I want use which are acoustic guitar, percusion (congas, shakers, guiro, timbale, bonga), drum kit, bass, Haawaiian steel pedal guitar, horns, steel pan, piano, and harmonica.


I find that the best ideas that actually result in a song are the ones that start with a song idea as opposed to searching styles for inspiration.

Have the idea in mind. It could be as simple as a really cool title. I've written several with only a title as the starting point.

If you remember anything from your school years.... I'm assuming they still teach this..... When you have to write a paper on a topic, our teacher taught us to put the ideas down on a piece of paper, everything we wanted to be sure to cover, and then to organize them into an OUTLINE of how we wanted to present the ideas. What was first, second third and so on. Then, from that outline, we could start the writing process.

This was actually how David sent the ideas for Whiskey for Breakfast. A bunch of thoughts for the first verse with an outline for the rest of the song indicating what he wanted to cover. Knowing only what was in the outline, I worked to formulate the song with my thoughts and ideas.


Starting with what you have listed..... I would pick a good basic, solid style. Bass, drums, guitars, and write the song using that style. You should work out the lyrics and structure in that basic style that fits. Then, after the song is written, take it into RB and add the steel, the percussion, the piano, the harmonica and whatever else you want.


Right now, you're stuck at the "idea" point. I personally think it's too early to be choosing the instruments to a song that hasn't yet been written. You're essentially putting the cart before the horse. Although, I'm sure others will disagree, and that's fine. Some people might write that way, heck you might write that way, but if you're stuck right here and now, you gotta do something different because the way you've been trying to write this song isn't working for you at this point in time. At this point in the process, you need to be coming up with a great idea for a song and you should be writing down all the thoughts and ideas that might or might not fit into the story line of the song. Write it all down and at some point a story and format will start to emerge. If the idea still won't gel, maybe it's time to either put it on the shelf and work on something totally new, or find a collaborator to help. Shelving a song is OK. I have a stack of notebooks filled with shelved song ideas. Occasionally, I will go back through them and see if anything in there "works now" and see if I can either finish it or use it in a fresher approach in a new song.

anyway, just some of my thoughts on the situation....

Last edited by Guitarhacker; 02/26/17 04:18 AM.
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